Five days & 1000 miles across France in a Carrera GT

[456mgt]

Promised to post on this when I'd done it.

Don't follow the signs for 'Freight', follow the signs for buses & caravans



Plenty of room either side of the car in the high vehicle section




You can get a surprising amount of luggage behind the seats, fortunately. Note that the handbag isn't mine...



France! And the sun's shining.






We stopped over in Fer en Tardenois, in a chateau about 60km out of Rheims http://www.ila-chateau.com/fere/




Lovely place, but a speed hump the size of Bolivia on the way in. The only downside actually. We had dinner there and it was just fantastic.

Onto Kaysersberg in the Alsace region the next day. Over Col Bonhomme. The perfect environment for a CGT. Hairpins, flat out sweepers and good quality road. Just. Epic. Very few pics of this as my navigator was a bit distracted...






One of my favourite photographs. This is a family run hotel and very simple, very French, hugely friendly and quite lovely.


I did a similar trip last year in a DB9 and it surprised me just how different it was doing it in the CGT. Howling through the French countryside, top down, sun shining was just fantastic. I just didn't want to stop. In fact, when we started on the way home, I was very tempted to turn left and keep going to the coast. Moreover the car was faultless. Just faultless. Started cleanly every day, even after being left overnight in a thunderstorm.

What makes or breaks trips like this, apart from the car, is the weather. Being able to take the top off is the real party piece for this car. Just love it.

[456mgt]

mickken said:

No one here is jealous.....apart from everyone!!

Dream trip for me in both car and Country.

Doing a 10 day extravaganza in a 730d this Summer, but once the company get's sold in a year or so, before I emirgrate to Sydney, i'll do the same. Roman's have already advised me what a CGT will depreciate in 5000miles and 14 days!!

Seriously, I didn't post for that reason; before we did it I had a very hazy impression of what the logistics would be like, and frankly, it could have been a nightmare. Turns out it's not that different from taking a normal car across. The 15 min blast up and over the Bonhomme is worth it on its own.

And like I give a rats about depreciation. On anything other than my faculties. It's important to do this stuff before you start dribbling and pissing your pants.

[456mgt]

Wanta996Gotta said:

One day i would love to do the european tour thing but my wife wouldnt get this, she doesnt understand the passion we all share for cars. No doubt i will do it alone one day.

This is a bit of a sad note- are you really sure she wouldn't enjoy it? My partner is no car nut either but she thoroughly enjoyed the trip and great wine & great food is pretty much a universal thing. It doesn't need to be a car thing, just an enjoyable trip in a nice car. She may surprise you! Can't see what's not to like myself.

Very nice Davey! Must do the Dijon road for sure- I didn't know about that one, and thanks for the reminder Brian...

[456mgt]

bcnrml said:

Now, when I saw this, I just had to ask: Did you really leave your CGT parked in a space like that, overnight, risking door dings???

No, in fact I parked behind the hotel, but only because the trees were shedding stuff that was ending up in the cabin and engine bay. We never had any problems parking, except in Epernay, where a dog had done a quite massive st on the pavement alongside the car. Passers by were skidding in the dog do while looking at the car and though it had comedy value it was quite disgusting. But that was it. Never felt worried about leaving the car, which always attracted an audience, but a friendly, enthusiastic one.

To answer the straight pipes questions (!), I put the Tubi muffler on for this trip and it was absolutely *perfect*. I can heartily recommend it. Not intrusive, even with the top down for long autoroute jaunts, but enough to create that extra howly stuff and popping. I had a French 997 tag along for a fast Sunday morning blatt up the mountain and when we turned round he pulled alongside and it was all smiles, wide arm gestures and 'magnifiques' That was such a laugh- trees give such awesome acoustics. Mind you, let's not get carried away; the muffler sounds gorgeous, but the straights are going back on pronto.

And Steve, thanks. The GT does get over that hump, but it's not pretty! It scraped against the sacrificial piece but went over without any damage. I did make point about it with the hotel staff and I hope they do something because it's a blemish on an otherwise lovely place.